EghtesadOnline: Average mobile Internet speed in Iran has increased by 47% since the beginning of the year, Internet testing and analysis company Ookla reported.

The average mobile download speed in Iran was 27.71 Mbps in September, 47.7% higher compared to the 18.75 Mbps in January. Mobile upload speed has also increased 33.4% over the period reaching 10.77 Mbps from 8.07 Mbps in January.

The significant increase resulted in a rise of 16 positions in Ookla’s global ranking of countries based on mobile Internet speed. According to the Speedtest Global Index report published on speedtest.net, Iran is now ranked 51 among 124 countries.

According to the report, the average mobile Internet speed in Iran registered a year-on-year 74.3% increase compared to September 2017, when it was 15.89 Mbps. At the time, Iran was ranked 70th among the audited countries, Financial Tribune reported.

Ookla says its data for the index comes from hundreds of millions of tests taken by real people around the world using the firm’s Speedtest service every day.

Norway has the fastest mobile Internet network with the average download speed in the country standing at 67.12 Mbps. The average global Internet speed is 23.64 Mbps.

>Fixed Broadband

In the nine months ending in September, the average fixed broadband Internet speed has also increased 35.7% in Iran reaching 12.84 Mbps from 9.46 Mbps in January. The average upload speed reached 5.87 Mbps for landline services, up 40.7% compared to 4.17 Mbps in January.

Compared to September 2017, the average download speed increased by29.1%. At the time average fixed broadband download and upload speeds were 9.94 Mbps and 4.73 Mbps respectively.

Singapore has the fastest fixed broadband Internet service in the world. Average download speed in that country is 184 Mbps. The global average landline Internet speed is 49.26 Mbps.

A report by the International Telecommunication Union published in November 2017 indicated that Iran was showing significant improvement in every aspect of the ICT sector. The ITU said Iran is “the most dynamic country” in terms of ICT development in Asia. Ookla’s latest findings underscore the ITU position on Iran’s verifiable progress.

Over the past decade there has been acceptable growth in the availability of communications in Iran, especially in the expanding urban areas, led by growth in mobile communications, and more recently, with the introduction of third and fourth generation of mobile telecommunication technologies (3G and 4G).

According to Iran Communication Regulatory Authority data published on opendata.cra.ir, there are 60 million mobile Internet users in Iran. Furthermore, 12.8 million Iranians have a landline Internet subscription. Iran has a population of 81 million.